Energy-absorbing structures are commonly incorporated into vehicles and other structures to protect personnel, structure, and/or property against compressive loads associated with a dynamic event, such as an impact, blast, or a crash. Related energy-absorbing structures typically include a core disposed between upper and lower facesheets coupled to the core. Typically, the core includes a closed-cell material, such as balsa wood, honeycomb, or closed-cell foam. Related energy-absorbing structures may alternately include an open-cellular core, such as a lattice core. However, related lattice cores typically include a uniform arrangement of struts. Uniform lattice cores may be structurally inefficient because the number of contact points of facesheets supported by the core cannot be increased without increasing the density of the core, which both constricts or restricts the open-cellular nature of the core and increases the overall weight of the core. Additionally, the uniform cores of related energy-absorbing structures are not configured to provide a tailored buckling response to a range of different compressive loads. To provide a customized buckling response to compressive loads, cores in related energy-absorbing structures may include several layers of different materials bonded together. However, bonding layers of dissimilar materials together is both time-consuming and cost inefficient.
Related structures may also be configured to function as a vascular system for delivering a fluid. However, related vascular systems are not configured to minimize the pressure drop of the fluid delivered through the system.